Ok my friend has 3 kids ages, 16,8,4 she took a Disney cruise and thinks no other line would offer as much for kids as Disney. Im wondering what you frequent cruisers think as I think Disney is far too expensive. Can you reccomend other lines?

Cruising on both lines, I believe that Carnival has one of the best programs for kids at sea. I do think that RCCL program is also very good. We have not taken our kids yet because my oldest girl is only 3. We will probably start in a couple of years. My opinion is purely based on watching the programs in action and talking to other cruisers on the ships with kids aboard.

I wasn't a big fan of the Voyager but both my wife and I commented that if we were going on a cruise with our grandkids or younger members of the family it would be the ship to pick.

We took a GOOD look at the kids activity area and spoke with one of the youth coordinators and were very impressed. The facilities, activities and areas were better than we had seen on other ships including the Carnival Legend. Also, there are more activities for teens and young adults. From the mini-golf, rock climbing, roller blading, exercises areas, teen clubs, disco, etc. Other ships have these areas but the size and usage of these areas was greater on this ship than on other ships.

Take care,
Mike

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Our kids (3 & 7) really enjoyed Camp Carnival on the Victory over Thanksgiving. It took awhile to convince our oldest to go but she is really excited this year (YEAH). We had gone on Majesty of the Seas when they were (2 & 6) but did not try the program. We are pretty protective and the youngest was to young for the club, pools, anything that looked like fun. It was a bummer. Carnival is a better fit for us and the counselors were great. Their mascot funship Freddy was easily accessible and always willing to spend some time with the kids. They do have a program for 15-17 year olds called Club O2 that looks like fun for that age group.

The one down side we saw was that the kids that were like 8 and up (with parent permission)could check themselves out of the program. I think the parents drop them off and then they check themselves out to wander the ship, push all the buttons on the elevator, etc.

Sorry got lost in a rant, it wasn't as bad as it could have been and we were having such a blast we didn't care.